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RFERL, September 22, 2016

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled on September 22 that Russia must pay financial compensation to controversial "healer" Grigory Grabovoi.

The court said the Russian government should pay Grabovoi 2,500 euros (some $2,800) for keeping him for more than two years in pretrial detention without a trial, which contradicts the European Convention on Human Rights.

Grabovoi, 52, who was born in Kazakhstan, established a foundation that received large sums of money from people whom he promised to cure of deadly diseases and even to resurrect their deceased relatives.

A Moscow court found Grabovoi guilty in 2008 of 11 counts of fraudulently obtaining money and sentenced him to 11 years in prison. Another court later reduced the sentence to eight years.

In May 2010, Grabovoi was released on parole.

Grabovoi's case became well-known in Russia after it was reported that some of the parents of children killed in September 2004 during the Beslan school siege were among his "clients."

The nongovernmental organization Mothers of Beslan denied that any of its members had paid for Grabovoi's services.